Part 1: How to make a Lace Bra – A quick step by step guide…

Want to know how to make a beautiful lace bra? Here’s a brief guide on how to make one.

This post will cover:

Making up your bra cups

Attaching your cups to your bridge

Sewing the wings to the frame

Attaching underband elastic

Please note this set of instructions is for a bra with cradle. Don’t know what that is? Well, it looks like the image below. The bridge extends underneath the cups and quite literally ‘frames’ the cups.

Before you start:

Cut out all your fabric pieces as accurately as you can.

To give the lace stability, I recommend lining it with a rigid sheer nylon. This is a lightweight, soft to the skin nylon mesh that has little stretch.

Trace or cut out your bra pattern piece – I recommend tracing your pattern onto card as it greatly improves your accuracy when cutting out your fabric. I used lead weights to hold my pattern pieces down, alternatively you can pin it.

Step 1: Make the bra cups

This method of constructing the lace cups is slightly different to some bra sewing patterns out there i.e. it does not have a lace edge. Why does that matter? A lot of bra patterns have an upper cup piece designed to use fabric with a lace edge and therefore do not have any seam allowance included on the top part of the upper cup piece. Therefore, you may need to modify your bra sewing pattern slightly to allow for this. i.e. you will need to add a little bit of extra seam allowance to the top edge of your bra cup. It’s a very simple modification. If you don’t your bridge and cup will not fit. After any modifications, it is always a good idea to double-check your pattern by ‘walking the seam’ or measuring pattern pieces at the seam line to ensure a perfect fit.

Take your upper cup pieces

Make sure you line them with sheer rigid nylon

Line it up with the lower cup piece in between the two layers – for a cleaner seam finish

Sew together and trim any excess seam allowance

et Voila! A beautiful bra cup

Step 2: Attach cups to bridge

1. With right sides of the lace and sheer nylon together, sew along the top

2. Flip the bridge out

3. Finger press or use a cool iron to press the top of the bridge

4. Pin one of the cups into the bridge piece making sure your notches match then sew. Repeat with the other cup.

Step 3: Sew main part of the bra to the bra wings

Pin the wing to the main part of the bra frame

Sew together and then stitch down the seam from the front for a nice finish

Step 4: Attach underband elastic to bridge and wings

From the front (Right Side), attach elastic along the bottom edge using a zig zag stitch

Turn it to the inside and stitch down again

Sewing elastic is sometimes roughly about 90% perspiration and 10% skill – Good elastication is just down to practice!